_{Look at all that yellow and blue. Wait a minute … Europe and USSR’s breadbasket … Ah, now I see!}

_{Photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplash}

Ukraine's national anthem begins with the words "Ukraine has not yet perished."^[1]

Yet!

YET!

Now, you might be tempted to end the search right there and declare Ukraine the winner of the ironic "The World's Most Optimistic National Anthem" title. Except...

There's a close—in more ways that one—contender to that title: the bordering country of Poland.

Poland's national anthem begins like so: "Poland has not yet perished."^[2]

That's not just a close contender, it's the closest possible close contender: one word short of singing another country's national anthem.

Digging into the archives—you history sleuth, you!—you discover that the Polish anthem predated, and inspired, the Ukrainian one.^[3]

Because who can fail to be inspired by such level-headed language, right? Pride and Prejudice, meet Sober and Sensible: they’ll be writing the anthems from now on.

In fact the lyrics were written between today and three days from now, 226 years ago, 65 years before the Ukrainian.^[4]

Now, you might be tempted to declare the issue settled right then and there, and hand the title over to Poland for reasons of seniority. Except...

And the (post's?) title goes to...

Ukraine, because being unironically optimistic in the face of an invasion by the world's largest country, whose declared intention is to end you as a nation, is a way bigger achievement than being optimistic in times of peace.

Alexander Alexis

16 Jul 2023

References

1. ^{Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023, The Myth of Origins.}

2. ^{Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023, The Ascent of a Nation.}

3. ^{Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2021, The Books of the Genesis.
   Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History, New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023, The Ascent of a Nation.}

4. ^{Wikipedia contributors. Poland Is Not Yet Lost. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. June 26, 2023, 03:07 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Poland_Is_Not_Yet_Lost&oldid=1161957395. Accessed July 16, 2023.
   Wikipedia contributors. National anthem of Ukraine. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. July 15, 2023, 02:57 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_anthem_of_Ukraine&oldid=1165423591. Accessed July 16, 2023.}